I hope you guys have had a very wonderful Thanksgiving (and Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday…). But let’s talk something even more important: Christmas is around the corner!

Last year, you may remember that I did a little something for our readers: a Christmas gift guide to the perfect gifts for the animation fan in your life (whether that be you or a friend or a loved one).

Well, we’re doing it again this year (call it a Rotoscopers tradition). Only this time around, we’re doing things a little different. The first edition of the Gift Guide was mainly suggestions from me and my fellow RotoWriters (a big thanks to Johnathan J. North, Morgan Stradling, and Max Den Hartog). While RotoWriters will definitely contribute this year, YOU, the reader, will be able to join in on the fun!

From now until December 10th, I want you to use the comment section below to send me your suggestions for the following items:

Movies

TV Shows

Art Books

Novels

Comics/Graphic Novels

Toys/Statues and Figurines

Clothing/Jewelry

Music/Soundtracks

General Merchandise

Why I’m asking you for things like this? Put it simply, if you can come up with a suggestion or list of suggestions from any of these categories, you will be featured in the article as part of the suggestions list!

These suggestions can come from anywhere. Any animation studio, publishing house, or online store of your choice can be featured here. When putting in suggestions, just give me the title of the item and a few sentences telling me why you think this item could be a perfect Christmas gift. I’ll do the heavy work of adding images and links, looking at prices, and figuring out the placement of your suggestion in the article (for example, ‘X recommends…’).

There are only two rules you need to follow. First, try not to suggest anything that has already been done. For example, some of you may try to put in The Art of Rise of the Guardians as a suggestion. While I love that book, we’ve already covered it last year, so try to think of items that haven’t been on the list before. The only exception to this rule: Funko POP! has produced a number of figures based on characters from multiple animated movies. If there are figures from a specific movie that you want to recommend, by all means do so.

Second, do not recommended items that won’t be available until after Christmas. I’m not setting this rule out of any sort of malice or favoritism for any type of item. It’s just the simple fact that there will be some cool stuff coming up out that animation fans just simply won’t get their hands on until sometime after Christmas. If I were you, I really wouldn’t want to break that news to the animation fan in your life: that he or she may not get that sweet, new art book or coffee mug until after Christmas. That would suck, right?

Once again, you have from now until December 10th to place suggestions in the comment section below. Once we reach the deadline, I will start collecting these suggestions and begin assembling the gift guide. While I can’t absolutely promise that this will be the case, I hope to have the article published sometime during the week before Christmas (ideally, December 14th).

And with that, I leave you all to your own devices. Have fun, and please continue to have a wonderful Happy Holidays.

Is there a category/item that you want to recommend, but you don’t see it on the list? Comment down below and I’ll have it added!

About Brandon Smith

Brandon is your average nerd with a love for nerdy things (games, comics, anime/manga, etc.). He also loves reading and writing and plans to be an author someday. For now, he writes with passion and curiosity about the world of animation. He lives with his family in North Carolina and is currently attending college.

Phoenix Wright

One animated holiday movie that I have always really loved is the Tom and Jerry Nutcracker movie. Its very cute and nice. The Beauty and the Beast christmas movie was also just released again, so that’s probably a good choice too. Though its not one of the best movies out there, its still an okay holiday movie. Another great gift would be the Nightmare Before Christmas 20th Anniversary Book. Its a few years old, but has a lot of great artwork and uses the original poem by Tim Burton

Can jewelry be included in the “clothing” category? Pandora has a special Disney princess line of charms on their website. Each princess has a customized glass bead charm, a dress charm, and a symbolic charm to go with that character (e.g. a rose for Belle, apple for Snow White).

For fans of the animated show “Star Wars Rebels”, the comic book “Kanan: the Last Padawan” by Greg Weisman is the backstory of the cowboy Jedi. There’s a Funko Pop line for the SWR characters, including Ahsoka Tano.

If you like cute and cuddly, the Tsum Tsum line of Disney characters has so many characters from the films in plush form.

brandon

Jewelry has been added to the list.

Katie

For Christmas, I know I will be asking for the Beauty the Beast Walt Disney Signature Collection BluRay, and “The Art of Moana” art book. These are both new releases (Well, Beauty the Beast isn’t out yet, but it will be for Christmas) that Disney fans will love. “Kubo and the Two Strings” just came out as well.

As for not new releases- I highly recommend anything “How To Train Your Dragon”. The movies, the art books, the tv series… even the original book series, are all incredible, and you could make a little holiday package out of it 🙂

brandon

I’ve already done the original HTTYD books and I’m not quite sure about the TV series (first two seasons on DVD, Netflix subscription for RTTE seasons). But the art books and the movies themselves would make a nice little holiday gift set.

Katie

I just checked and it is already available. For some reason I thought it was coming out in mid December! I must have mixed up the date with something else.

Hmmmm have you guys talked about the Into the Woods soundtrack? Not sure for any tv show that Once Upon a Time would count since I remember you guys did that way back ago, but I guess just only have the Into the Woods soundtrack as an idea

Patrick Moffatt

D23 2017 expo ticket giveaways!

brandon

How about something you could actually put under someone’s tree. Look at the list and try again 🙂

Dylan H.

Movies: The Ultimate Laika Collection
Laika does a fantastic job loading their blu-rays with behind the scenes goodness.
Do I even need to mention how good their films are!?

Art Books: The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox
Full of behind the scenes photos and a couple interesting interviews that run throughout.
It is beautifully laid out. Also the printing is really nice.

brandon

Already highlighted a previous LAIKA collection, but I might be able to make an acception since KUBO is part of the new set.

UPDATE: Okay guys, I’m seeing a lot of familiar suggestions crop up in the comment thread. Just today, I’ve had three people recommend items that I’ve already spotlighted yesterday.

Please, all I ask is that you look at the previous article and look at the list on this article and try to come up with suggestions that haven’t been in the gift guide before. At some point, I’ll have to ignore some commenters if all I’ll get is stuff I’ve already talked about.

Peter

I don’t know if it was meant to be that way, but I gotta say this comment sounded kinda rude to the fans that are taking time to comment on the post. Most people don’t have to analyze all the things on last years post, but we’re because we like the site. People shouldn’t be told their comments are going to be ignored because they made a suggestion that was already on the list.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I don’t think you should turn away your fans and everyone’s opinion should be worth something.

brandon

Forgive me if the comment sounded stern, but after three years of writing for the website, I guess you could say that I put too much trust in the readers to know exactly what to do.

I don’t do it to be rude or condescending. I do that kind of hand-holding because I care about the readers. When doing fun things like these, I’m more than happy to offer direction and advice.

It’s not my intention to turn away my readers, and a cursory glance at the rest of my comments on this threads proves that I do care about people’s opinions. Is it a lot of hand-holding? Yes, but it’s absolutely worth it.

Peter

No problem! I totally understand that these things come across differently online. I think you do a great job though on everything though, so thanks for being so dedicated to your readers and to the site.

Taylor

Of course there are a lot of good “Art of” books, like “The Art of Moana”, and “Art of Good Dinosaur” but some good upcoming or relatively other new movie or Disney-related books might be “George Lucas: A Life”, by Brian Jay Jones or “The Disney Book” by Jim Fanning are some good choices that are out in time for Christmas